


Criminally Inclined

by IAmNotGoodatthisnamingthing



Series: Hyde_Chronicles [1]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Friendship/Love, but this is mostly platonic, the conman au literally nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 01:39:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14706690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmNotGoodatthisnamingthing/pseuds/IAmNotGoodatthisnamingthing
Summary: "Our interrogation session will go something like this: first, Leo here will break your joints while I sit here and enjoy the view, and then I will destroy your life digitally. And if somehow that still doesn’t work, well then, you’ll be wishing you had given up earlier, because even I don’t want to piss off N on a good day. Shall we begin?”Or where VIXX are conmen on a mission, and Ken reminisces about their past as they chase their future; and oh yeah, there's some Keo toobecause I'm trash





	Criminally Inclined

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jen for putting me on a deadline and for always being there with constructive criticism and no judgment <3  
> Check out her work [here!](http://archiveofourown.org/users/JenZz/pseuds/lady-serendipity)

When he exits the lift, the first thing Ken sees is Bin’s beatific face alight with a smile.

 

“Hey Bean, mission go well?” he asks goodnaturedly, waving at Hyuk who is in the process of taking off his pants right in the middle of the corridor. Not that the view is not appreciated, but Ken has things to know so he turns back to the team’s angel-faced designated “retrieval specialist.”

 

“Target has been acquired, and unharmed as per our orders,” Bin pouts a bit. “He’s quite a chatterbox, kept hissing about how we don’t know who we are messing with and the usual crap till Hyogi slapped duct tape over his mouth.” Bin pauses to spare their grifter an admiring look. “He legit steered the van with his toes for a good few seconds while he shut him up. It was a sight to see.”

 

“Well, I’m glad you two are in high spirits, and thank you Hyogi for the stripping show, highly appreciate that,” Ken salutes for effect. “But I gotta get in before Leo breaks this dipshit’s jaw, so catch you later?”

 

“We’ll be in Ravi’s Lab, he wants to test some new… _contraptions_ ,” Bin winces, possibly remembering Ravi’s last – failed – experiment that had almost blown the lab to pieces, and worse, destroyed Ravi’s cupboard of gourmet sauces. Pity really, their unhealthy snacking had not been the same since.

 

And so the duo disappear. Ken powers up his latest disposable smartphone as he walks to the door at the end of the hallway.

 

With a flick of his device, the door opens to reveal a sterile interrogation room, housing a plethora of torture devices – mostly for show – and a man bound to a chair, sporting a gudetama-adorned strip of duct tape across reddened face.

 

“You’re late,” a voice calls from the shadows and Ken scoffs.

 

“Only by 3 minutes, I was in the middle of a very important rerun of One Piece, you know,” Ken scowls playfully. “How’s our guest?”

 

“Insufferable,” the man called Leo says, finally stepping out from the farthest corner of the room and into the light. “He was spouting nonsense, and so I shut him up again.”

 

Ken hums, stepping closer to the thrashing man in the chair. “Forgive him, Mr. Gong. Some people don’t appreciate the fine art of polite conversation.”

 

“Go to hell,” is the first thing the man hisses when Ken rips off the duct tape. “I’m going to destroy you, I’m going to bury you all to the goddamn ground.”

 

“It appears you too are one of those people,” Ken sighs, patting the tape back over his mouth. “Our instructions were to not harm you till you were transported, but now that you’re here, well everything is fair game. But, where are my manners? Welcome to Hyde, Mr. Gong,” Ken smiles, enjoying the widening of the man’s eyes when he recognizes the name. “Well, you seem to know somewhat about us, so I will cut to the chase.

 

“You’re here, because you possess information we require. And we are going to get it out of you one way or another. The less you cooperate, the longer-lasting the effects of this encounter will be, so take a moment. Collect yourself. And let’s have a mutually beneficial conversation, yeah?” Ken finishes cheerily, taking out four sensors from his left pocket.

 

“I’m going to attach these to you in a moment,” he says, activating his little orbs before latching one to the subject’s neck, two to his wrists and one right at the edge of his receding hairline. “See this are going to help me monitor your vitals and judge for myself if you’re being truthful or not, and in the event I get displeased with you, these are going to discharge a high-voltage electric zap that you’re not going to enjoy very much. Great then, I’m going to untape you.”

 

This time, Mr. Gong took three whole seconds to regain his breath before glaring up with venom-filled eyes at Ken’s friendly expression. “I don’t know who you are, but the moment I get out of here, I’m going to hunt you down and I’m going to feed you to dogs, you son of a b-,” he broke off, shrieking as electricity coursed through his body.

 

“Language, Mr. Gong,” Ken clucked his tongue, walking backwards and settling into the chair Leo had pulled up for him. “This is an interrogation, please try and stay on topic.”

 

“What do you want?” Mr. Gong asks.

 

“Personal gratification, a Spice Girls reunion, some chicken wings right now, and oh-you meant from you. Oops,” Ken sputters at Leo’s pointed cough. “Well, a name and a lead. What do you know about DoWonKyung?”

 

The colour drained from Mr. Gong’s face. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says nervously.

 

“We could go about this for another 5 minutes, but I have a One Piece marathon I need to get back to, so let me just tell you that no one will know it’s you who told us. Anyone who could have been monitoring you thinks you are at a hotel room frotting the night away with our very talented grifter. You give us what we need, and we deliver you intact back to the room, and you’ll never see us again. Scout’s honour.”

 

“Fu-hell no,” Mr. Gong amends, shaking his sweat-drenched head. “If you know about who’s keeping an eye on me, you know what will happen to me if I open my mouth. I’d rather die than suffer what they will do to me.”

“Oh, we don’t want to know about ‘them’,” Ken assures, using air quotes. “We know who they are, and their aim of chaos and world domination, and spoilers: not gonna happen. We’re interested in something else, Mr. Gong. There’s a number you know, that only you know, a four-letter code. Ring any bells?”

 

Mr. Gong frowns for a moment before realization strikes him. “Then you are looking for…”

 

“Shangri La,” Leo completes softly, mindlessly picking at the hem of the gloves covering his hands.

 

“This conversation is over. You’ll have nothing from me,” Mr. Gong smirks. Despite his smooth expression, his pulse rate is skyrocketing, Ken realizes, reading off his phone.

 

“A pity really, I had high hopes for you,” Ken sighs. “Will that be your final answer?”

Mr. Gong doesn’t meet his eye, instead stares off into space.

 

“Interrogation then,” Ken sighs, pulling his feet up to sit cross-legged on the chair. “In the interest of not wasting any of our time, our interrogation session will go something like this: first, Leo here will break your joints while I sit here and enjoy the view, and then I will destroy your life digitally. And if somehow that still doesn’t work, well then, you’ll be wishing you had given up earlier, because even I don’t want to piss off N on a good day. Shall we begin?” Ken finishes, looking up at Leo.

 

Leo rounds his shoulders and squeezes Ken’s shoulder discreetly before stalking past him towards their subject, and Ken turns on the room’s camera feed (knowing Leo would want to analyze his hits sooner or later) and opens up a game of Anipang.

 

In the end, Mr. Gong breaks down when Ken pulls $10 million from the offshore account he used for his children’s education fund in and forward it to Medicins Sans Frontiers (and after Leo does a number on his ribcage and legs) and then he starts singing like a canary.

The four-letter code is retrieved in no time, as is the name of their next target, and Mr. Gong is patched up and sent back with Hyuk and Bin to where they had abducted him from.

Leo disappears to wash the blood off his knuckles and the sweat off his bangs, and Ken heads straight to N’s office, armed with the new information.

 

When Hyuk and Bin return, they are all situated in Ravi’s workshop, Nirvana, and busy eating takeout.

 

“Next time, one of you should go in to seduce greasy handsy corrupt men,” Hyuk points his chopsticks at them, earning a snort from Bin. “Leo would scare them at first sight, Ken’s caffeinated rambles would drive them away and well, Ravi is afraid of people.”

 

“Then N hyung should go,” Hyuk insists, pouting at their leader. “Or not,” he amends, seeing N’s serene smile directed at him.

 

“Good effort, guys,” N says once he’s done picking through half the food on his plate. “We now have the name of our next target. Kwon Boowoon. Ken?”

 

“Right,” he quickly wipes his hands and taps his phone to display the profile he’s built up on the big screen. “38. Former army special ops, nifty with makeshift weapons. Head of operations of DaeCorps; he’s most likely the one keeping all our targets under surveillance. Works in a very secure compound, and his home security is to die for. Oh wow. I’ll have a more detailed profile of his daily habits and spending patterns in a couple of hours, but I can tell you that this guy is going to be a pain to catch.”

 

“Thanks for the update, Ken. Let’s regroup with his full profile in 3 hours,” N nods, undoubtedly already playing with game plans in the back of his mind. “Let’s have Leo as bait on this. Hyuk can be the hitter. Bin, sit with Ravi later on in the evening and learn to use the serums we have been developing-”

 

“Are we going to use serums on him?” Leo speaks up for the first time, his voice barely hiding his disgust. Justified disgust. His body, and the rest of theirs was pumped full of enhancer serums, after all.

 

“Just a memory-frying one,” N says dismissively. “He’s a details man, the less we give him the better for us. Speaking of, Leo change your hair back to black. Hyuk and Bin, I want you both training martials arts and weapons 3 hours every day. Ken, get glasses, I want you out on-”

 

“Leave him out of this,” Leo bites out venomously, leaping off his chair and standing up to his full height. N doesn’t flinch, only leans back in his chair and studies Leo’s outraged face with a smirk.

 

“It’s just a precaution, right N?” Ravi stands up too, eyes fixed on the taut lines of Leo’s body and a hand gripped on the knife he had been cutting his burger with. “Besides, I think I saw a roll of double chin on Ken, he could do with the exercise.”

 

“Slander,” Ken appeases, running his foot up and down Leo’s ankle. “I will do the training as needed, under Leo’s supervision of course,” he quickly rectifies, seeing the betrayed look on Leo’s face. “If that would be all?”

 

“Regroup in 3,” N reminds, languidly standing up. “And a word in private, Leo,” he completes, sauntering out of the room and undoubtedly into the Library.

 

Leo sighs deeply and reaches back to squeeze the hand Ken had planted on the small of his back, before shadowing N’s footsteps.

 

Bin lets out an uneasy smile when they’re gone, looking anywhere but at Ken, but Hyuk fixes him with a look and arches an eyebrow.

 

“It’s going to be fine,” Ken assures, barely looking up from his computer. “This is not the first time they’ve crossed words about me going to field, and this won’t be the last. You guys should go train before N sees you all loitering around.”

 

“Cool,” Hyuk says, getting up and studying his reflection on the floor-length mirror next to the door. “I need to carb-load.”

 

“I’ll order dinner, courtesy of Mr. Gong’s spending account for his mistress. Honestly, man’s got taste,” Ken supplies, and Bin crowds near his shoulder to see the woman’s picture. He whistles, cackling something about how Hyogi had better legs than her and is immediately chased out of the room by said man.

 

“They’ll be ok, Ravi-ah,” Ken assures, once they’re alone. “But you should learn to conceal your emotions better. _Your feelings_ could compromise your work.”

 

“You’re one to say,” Ravi retorts. “Leo literally has his hands all over you half the time you spend together. And don’t think I don’t see you two holding hands under the table, either.”

 

“Literally everyone in the agency knows that I’m his weakness and he’s mine,” Ken returns, glancing up at Ravi. “We’ve been this way since our trainee days when he took it upon himself to keep me and my genius IQ alive from people trying to slit my throat. It wasn’t a pretty year, but we’re partners, and everyone has learnt to live with that. You, on the other hand, developing a crush on your first mentor and team leader, well that’s a different story. Learn to accept some friendly advice and hide your emotions till your standing on the team is cemented.”

 

Ravi grumbles under his breath but pats Ken’s neck apologetically before leaving, and Ken can’t help but smile at this sweet boy.

 

He’s working almost perfunctorily, used to breaking through firewalls of all kinds without leaving a trace, and so Ken lets his mind wander. To five years ago, and how he – as a teen with a list of misdemeanors longer than most people’s bucket list – had been recruited into M.A.Z.E.

 

He thinks back to his first day in the academy, and how he’d solved every code the instructor could throw at him, earning the envy and enmity of his fellow and senior trainees. How he had gotten his ass kicked at hand-to-hand combat by a senior with a penchant for black, and how said senior had saved his life when some of his fellow trainees had tried to murder him.

 

He remembers hugs, and walks, and later kisses and nights spent cuddling, and a terrible morning being interrogated by the school board about their relationship. He remembers Leo wreaking havoc when they had tried to separate the two, and then N, legendary mastermind even back then, proposing a solution agreeable to everyone. Leo and Ken had taken the serum together, lying hand in hand, suffering the burning pain before being able to breathe again. And it was with N they had gone off-grid to being their career as Hyde agents.

 

He remembers midnights spent lounging in bathtubs in Paris, Osaka, Milan with his love, and he remembers biting off the skin on his knuckles waiting for Leo to return after recons in Vladivostok, Singapore and Cape Town. He remembers running through streets in Havana, and patching up both Leo and N’s wounds in Berlin. He remembers Bin and Ravi joining them in Seoul, and interpreting Ravi’s stares towards their team leader in Bali. Hyuk had joined them in Guangzhou, and refused to take up a codename, and somehow they had all been making this work for the past 2 years, interdependent and stronger together. And honestly, what more could Ken ask for?

 

“You’re smiling,” Leo comments, settling his chin on Ken’s shoulder.

 

“Just thinking of you,” Ken says cheesily, adding an over-the-top wink that has Leo hitting his shoulder. “Everything go okay?”

 

“N wanted his neck massaged is all,” Leo rolls his eyes. “How’re we doing with Kwon?”

 

“He’s going to be hard to crack,” Ken frowns, studying the information on his screen at lightning speed. Perks of an eidetic memory.

 

“But we can do it,” Leo says, surely. Yet questioningly.

 

“Oh yeah, most definitely,” Ken nods, arching his neck as Leo noses along his throat. “You’re distracting me.”

 

Leo only whines in reply, sneaking a hand around to grip Ken’s thigh and _squeeze_.

 

“You can have me later,” Ken promises, bringing Leo’s hand up to press a kiss against it. “But now we need to work.”

 

“I’ll go and show the children how to box properly then, yeah?” Leo asks, straightening up.

 

“I’ll help you dye your hair after dinner,” Ken adds, taking one long look at his partner’s ashy-blond hair. Leo smiles before coming to stand in front of Ken, cupping his neck with a hand.

 

“Maybe we can go above the ground for a walk tomorrow?” Leo asks, stroking his neck.

 

“Lunch and movie followed by grocery shopping for the team?” Ken suggests, eyes lighting up.

 

They hardly got time to go above ground or be a couple together outside, so they liked doing these kinds of cliched things together.

 

“I love you, Jaehwan,” Leo leans down to whisper quietly but lovingly against Ken’s ear, nipping it lightly and disappearing before Ken can do anything more than yelp.

 

“I love you too, you hunk,” Ken calls after him, smiling when he hears Leo’s carefree chuckle from down the corridor. _I love you too, Taekwoon,_ he repeats in the company of his mind, where it is safe to say the name he had been told in confidence.

 

The life they lead isn’t the easiest of paths to live, but they had made peace with the possibility of losing each other at a moment’s notice, had almost lost each other several times, but they were still alive, and together, and really nothing else mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, lovelies! I'd love to know what you think of this story ^_^


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